Baby-monitor Firm Fires, Sues President

June 25, 1986|By Jim McNair, Business Writer

Emergent Technology Corp., the Boca Raton-based company that developed a federally approved monitor for sleeping babies, has sacked its president and asked a judge to keep him from ``destroying`` the company`s technology.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, the company said shareholders had voted earlier in the day to remove Leon Snyder as president. Snyder founded Emergent Tech more than two years ago after coming up with the idea of monitoring a baby`s respiration through a crib mattress liner. The sensors would detect the erratic breathing and heartbeats associated with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and would send signals to a computer to set off an alarm.

According to the lawsuit, Snyder had vowed that he intended to ``slash and burn`` the Lifewatch technology, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration several months ago. The company wants the court to prohibit Snyder from destroying the technology, to return his keys to the buildings and to stay away from the company.

Emergent Tech is joined in the lawsuit by Tri Fund Research Corp., a Denver investment firm that provided Snyder`s company with seed capital. Tri Fund states that it owns 59 percent of the company`s stock, having infused Emergent Tech with $4 million. The lawsuit states that Tri Fund owns the Lifewatch patent, while Emergent Tech is the sole licensee to sell it.

Emergent Tech and Tri Fund also contend that Snyder secretly developed another product, a multi-channel recorder, using company resources and employees and during company time. They want the court to order Snyder to turn over those plans.

Snyder could not be reached for comment Tuesday, nor could officials of Emergent Tech and Tri-Fund or their lawyer, George Bailey.